Raiganj to Murti Road Trip

02 November 2020 (220 Km)

This trip continues to be a part of the North Bengal trip done in November 2020. Left The Kulik Bird Sanctuary at 8 AM. The main road from Raiganj to Siliguri is via Dalkhola and then onwards to Islampur. However, I had two reasons to avoid this route - one, the stretch between Raiganj and Dalkhola is being 4 laned, and hence it makes for irritating driving, and two, Dalkhola Railway crossing is a mess. The road passes through narrow lanes and the gates are normally down. The traffic gets backed up for kilometers and the best road sense and civic sense of our fellow citizens make it a nightmare.

So took the inside road via Botolbaro- Rasakhowa to Islampur. One you are on the main EW Corridor just ahead of Islampur, its a 4 lane good highway, and its a pleasure to drive on. At Islampur, you still have to cross the main town, to you need to slow down to a crawl. There is a bypass that is being constructed - which seems almost ready. S this stretch should be pain free very very soon.

Once you cross Islampur, you are in North Bengal proper, approaching Bagdogra. Tea gardens on both sides of the road indicate your arrival at North Bengal. This time, instead of heading into Bagdogra, I first took the Bagdogra, Fulbari connector, which has been newly constructed. But then realised that if I took this route I would be entering Murti via Jalpaiguri-Lataguri side, which I did not want to. So I cut back again, and landed up on the Bagdogra-Siliguri road via Kadamtala. We emerged just ahead of the North Bengal University. The drive from there to Sevoke was quite painful. For every minute I drove on that strecth, i could not help but remember how empty the stretch between Bagdogra-Matigara-Siliguri was in 1987, when we last lived there. My exit out of North Bengal in June 1987 was via Bengdubi, where we had halted for a night, and had then driven to New Jalpaiguri in the morning to board the Kanchenjungha Express. It would have probably taken us at most 20-30 minutes. This whole stretch now is overcrowded with construction and traffic. In fact, where there were fields on both side, with a serene Balason flowing through in the middle, its actually now become almost a single city, with quite unmanageable traffic. In the 1970s and 1980s, the road from Darjeeling More to Salugara was actually the Siliguri bypass. But now its part of the city. And from Salugara to Sevoke - till the cantoments and forest areas start, you have to crawl through single lane traffic.

The reason why I took the pain to take this route however, is for the dream beyond. I took this route for the opportunity to drive up the Teesta Valley and then drive through Dooars proper. And it did not fail to enthrall, as always. Before we hit Dooars, we stopped at Mong Pong for lunch. We did not have any reservation at the Mong Pong Forest Rest House or at the WBFDC Resort. However, the timber yard just outside was vacant. We just set up our picnic tables and had lunch.

From there, it was a short 40 minute drive to Murti - through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. And one that is so so familiar to me - Bagrakote, Oodlabari, Damdim, Malbazar, Chalsa, Dhupjora, Murti. A word on Malbazar which is enroute. The town is now unrecognizable from what it was in the 1980s. Three decades back, all it had was a few shacks, a forest garden with a pagoda, and a petrol pump owned by the the Forest Minister, who used to live in an apartment behind the pump. Today its become a huge town, crowded, and dirty.

Murti, however, lived up to its expectation. It transpired that I chose the cottages at the West Bengal Forest Development Corporation (WBFDC)'s Banani Resort well. The river is right in the front. and the view was spectacular.

Quickly checked in and had a cup of hot tea. Then on a whim (since its was only 2 pm), went on a drive to Lava via Gorubathan. I remember going to Gorubathan last in 1982, after my winter final exams in Class VI. I also vividly remember being taken for movie (a rare relaxation permitted those days by parents), since it was just the start of my winter vacations (the movie was Kalia, by the way). But the Gorubathan of my memories and that in reality was completely different. This too has become extremely crowded, and packed with traffic. The fact that it was a local haat day, did not help at all. Wasted some time there. Due to this, and since it was the onset of winter and it got dark quickly, did not end up driving all the way up to Lava. A few kilometers ahead of Lava found a roadside restaurant cum homestay and stopped for some tea, momos and soup. It felt really cold up there in the hills - this place was at a height of about 4000ft. Even at this height, we felt the chill. After we had our fill, we returned back to Murti. Had dinner and spent a long long looooong time sitting in the darkness, and in the silence - listening to the sound of the Murti river flowing by, and peering into the darkness. The trip has just started. The next destinations are Chapramari and Gorumara tomorrow. Really excited.